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vita mix ice cream!

During the Vita Mix demonstration at the Big E, we saw them whip up some delicious, quick treats, including Ice Cream!

It is so simple and easy!  And, you can basically mix up whatever ingredients you want.

This week, I was craving something cold and sweet, so for breakfast one morning, I whipped up some ‘ice cream’ using the Vita Mix!

Vita Mix Protein Ice Cream

  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 cup frozen mango chunks
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1 scoop SunWarrior protein powder, vanilla
  • dash vanilla
  • 2 tbsp honey or sugar of choice

I added some protein to the mix because I am definitely trying to get more protein in my diet these days!

Turn the blender on and use the plunger to push down all of the frozen ingredients into the blades.  Trust me, it works!  After about 30 seconds, 4 peaks will form.

And, you will have creamy, cold ice cream.  Ok, maybe it doesn’t taste like ice cream, but more like frozen yogurt.  Either way, it is cold, creamy and sweet!  Just what I wanted.

Made in 1 minute, and all for me!

Check out the texture – it’s so smooth.

Topped with a little granola for crunch…and to make it feel more like breakfast, 🙂

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meet my vita-mix

That’s right!  Guess who showed up in the mail?!

My Vita-Mix 5200!

And, look at that, she just fits under the counter.  The base is huge, but I guess that is where all of the power comes from.  And, when I say power – the Vita-Mix is powerful!

It has low and high speeds along with variable speeds, which are great.  When making a smoothie, Vita-Mix recommends that you start off on 1 and slowly turn the knob up to 10 before flipping it on high for 30 seconds to completely blend.  This gets rid of a chance for air pockets which will cause the smoothie to stop blending properly.

You can also use the tamper to push down your ingredients to get them to blend properly.  It works like a charm when making ice cream and nut butters.

This morning, I decided to make a smoothie, so I dropped all of my ingredients into the blender.

  • beet greens
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 6 frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 frozen mango
  • 1/2 cup frozen pineapple
  • 1 tsp spirulina
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 2 tbsp hemp seeds

I blended away for no longer than 60 seconds and came out with an extremely smooth smoothie!

The Vita-Mix was quick!  And, completely blended everything.  I didn’t have chunks of greens or hemp seeds throughout like I normally would have with my other blender.  I could not even tell that there were greens or seeds in the smoothie!  It was awesome.

Over the past few days, I have also made ice cream and multiple smoothies in the Vita.  Each time, it comes out perfect.  It pulverizes the frozen fruit, greens and nuts in a matter of seconds.

I am extremely happy about my purchase!

One other great thing, is how you clean it.  Rinse out the pitcher and fill half way with water and a squirt of dish soap.

Use the variable speed to get up to 10.

Then, blend on high for 30-60 seconds.

Viola!  A clean blender!

I’m so excited!!!

I was starving once lunch rolled around, so I pulled out some random veggies, eggs and hummus that I had packed.

A sliced up pickling cucumber and leftover grilled eggplant.

2 hard boiled eggs.

And, lemon hummus.

Some snacks today included yogurt, a nectarine and a S’more Glo Bar.

The Adore Glo Bar was good, but not my favorite.  I much prefer the Chocolate Coffee Bar!  Still, a great texture and flavor, though.

We are off for pizza and a talk on Barefoot Running tonight.

Have a great one.

(not) cooking up a storm

Tonight is just one of those nights where I feel like cooking (or not cooking as the case may be)!  I made up a pretty hefty list of things that I want to whip up this weekend for lunches, dinners and snacks for the upcoming week, so you’ll be seeing lots of yummy recipes to come.

First off, I started my day with another fun juice which included a beet!  I forgot to snap a photo, but my bright red juice included 1 beet, 2 green apples and 1 celery stalk.  It was good!  Better than my juice from yesterday.  Sweet, but not too sweet.

I grabbed some almonds as a snack as I left my house this morning.  They were some new almonds that I was sent by Sahale Snacks.  They sent me a bunch of different types, but the ones I grabbed today were PB&J Almonds!  I mean, I love PB so I knew that I needed to try these first.

Surprisingly, these tasted like jelly covered almonds!  There were peanuts in the mix as well, which is where the pb came from.  I liked them.  They were not too sweet, but definitely had a strawberry jelly flavor to them.  And, it was a small snack size pack which was perfect for an on-the-go snack.

The PB&J Almonds have a pretty decent ingredient list for flavored nuts.  Longer than I would like to see, but pretty natural stuff, so not bad!

  • Almonds
  • Peanuts
  • Organic Cane Juice
  • Dried Strawberries
  • Brown Sugar
  • Dried Raspberries
  • Vanilla Extract & Beans
  • Sea Salt
  • Strawberry Juice Concentrate
  • Natural Raspberry Flavor

You can find these snacks at Starbucks as part of their new snack line!  Yum!

My first project of the evening was eggplant bacon!  I used the recipe from Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney, frankly because it’s the only one I could find with good reviews!

I sliced up and soaked my eggplant for the required amount of time, then plopped it in the dehydrator.  It should take about 24 hours(!!), so I’ll post the recipe when it is done!

Recipe and more photos to come once it is done!

I then went to work on Zucchini Chips.  These were much easier.  I took 2 zucchini’s and sliced them into 1/4 inch strips and placed them in the dehydrator with the eggplant.

And, that is where both will at 115°F for 15-20 hours!

And then, I made the best treat of the evening – fudge babies!!  Katie from Chocolate Covered Katie is hosting a Vita-Mix giveaway!  I would die to have a Vita-Mix right now, and every time I am cursing my blender for not making my smoothies creamy!  To enter, go to Katie’s website.  If you cook up a recipe by tomorrow, you get 6 additional entries!

I decided to use Katie’s basic peanut butter babies recipe, but make it chocolate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Babies

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup pitted dates
  • 1/2 cup roasted peanuts
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 heaping tablespoons cacao powder

Directions:

Throw all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend!

Roll the dough into balls or flatten it into bars, similar to a larabar.  Eat and enjoy!

These took me all of 5 minutes to make.  It took longer to measure the ingredients and roll them into balls than anything else.  Of course I needed to try one!

Yum!  Just like a peanut butter cup!  Kind of – definitely not the same texture, but it does taste like peanut butter and chocolate which does the trick!